ISLAMABAD – The infamous Asghar Khan case had resurfaced recently when aSupreme Court bench expressed dissatisfaction at the lack of progressconsidering the apex court had in 2012 ordered action against both militaryofficials as well as the politicians who received money from them.In a 2012order, the federal government had been directed to take action – within thebounds of the 1973 Constitution and the law – against Beg and Durrani fortheir role in ‘facilitating’ a group of politicians and political partiesin the 1990 elections.
In 1996, Asghar Khan had written a letter to the then Supreme Court chiefjustice Nasim Hassan Shah naming Beg, Durrani and Younis Habib, the formerHabib Bank Sindh chief and owner of Mehran Bank, about the unlawfuldisbursement of public money and its misuse for political purposes.
The case was initiated by the air marshal after Benazir Bhutto’s interiorminister, Naseerullah Babar, had disclosed in the National Assembly in 1994how the ISI disbursed funds to purchase the loyalty of politicians andpublic figures so as to manipulate the 1990 elections, form the IslamiJamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and affect the defeat of the PPP.
The petition alleged that the two senior army officers and thethen-president Ghulam Ishaq Khan had doled out Rs140 million among severalpoliticians ahead of the 1990 general elections to ensure Benazir Bhutto’sdefeat in the polls.
Close to 16 years after the petition was filed, the Supreme Court in ajudgement penned by then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had ruled that the1990 general elections had been polluted by dishing out Rs140 million to aparticular group of politicians only to deprive the people of beingrepresented by their chosen representatives.
The court had, however, thrown the ball back to the then PPP government bydirecting it to take necessary action under the constitution and lawagainst Beg and Durrani for their role in rigging the 1990 elections.